Alex

Underemployed Economist cum Inundated Schemer. I first came to China in 2000, and have lived in Dalian since 2005. I am currently running a consultancy geared around communications audit and market research which has covered rare earth to accounting to coal to milk.

Alex has submitted 211 stories, 143 of which were voted popular, and has earned 2852 Gold Stars.

Forget where you lost your ship? Want to see when the next tanker comes to town? Where do the cargo vessels ply their lines? What's a hot spot for commercial fishing? Will the ferry arrive on time? All is possible with live shipping maps. Here's an example for Dalian. more »

Rich's advice: Don't wait for an ambulance, get in the taxi and off to hospital as fast as possible. "When reading the article Ambulance never came for boy struck by screen in Shanghai, I thought it important to write up a quick post on what to do when a medical... more »

I just saw this PDF linked on Twitter, and thought I'd save and post it to share with others. Written in the 70s by the FBI, this 100 page guide is a pretty good reference for learning the words, phrases and slang necessary to talk like Chow Yunfat. more »

A 1 Yuan note I was passed in Dalian, China, had an interesting verse written on the back: a call for freedom of religious practice written by the F@1un G0ng (lame 1337 5p33k as a crude GFW avoider). This organisation is disallowed in mainland China. I have no idea how... more »

Today, after buying a ton of concrete and a ton of sand, I was faced with a logistical problem: how to get it from the wholesaler to the site it's supposed to be used. The solution was hiring 'power workers' - guys who's ability is in being strong, or not... more »

This is longtail. CICC is China's first joint-venture investment bank. By the looks of this email, it also seems quite an exciting place to work, as they don't mind CC'ing in lots of managers when exposing someone's affair, and by the looks of it, quite a lot of favours and... more »

This is an excellent post discussing ethnicity, mentality and sports in China. And quite a good destruction of the China Blogosphere's favourite "Is he a lawyer or not?" celebrity Chris Devonshire Ellis. more »

Hao Hao Hao Ting! This is a short guide to using the Chinese uber site Hat Ting. Hao Ting provided streaming music from a range of artists, both Asian and Western, but they're really notable for the range of Asian artists, and their speed - streaming to the US is... more »

After a prolonged court case with the Swissotel Group, the Swiss Hotel in Dalian has renamed itself 'Swish' Hotel, and in the process exposed a lot of what's wrong with branding in China, and being international in general: smaller Chinese companies are not good at internationalising, even when they have... more »